I had decided to volunteer to review the Audioengine AW1 Wireless Adapter for switchingtomac.com forums. Therefore, this review encompasses using a Mac with this product, and PC was not tested. In short, this device is meant as a means to wirelessly transfer your music from your PC or nearly any device, such as iPod and Game Consoles, to speakers or a Stereo receiver (through RCA inputs).

First, I must admit, I am not a huge audio guy with stereo surround sound or even a really nice stereo system. I do have a Sony 5 CD changer, but could not get the wireless devices to work with that Sony unit and speakers. I don’t believe this device is exactly meant to work with these types of “bookshelf” components, but I tried. It works mainly with stereo receivers, subwoofers, and powered speakers. However, I was able to get the wireless devices to work with my GE speakers that were connected to my PC. I disconnected the speakers from the PC and set them up next to a power source and connected the wireless receiver device to the speakers and connected the sender device to my Apple MacBook.

Once I was able to successfully connect all the devices to speakers, the rest was incredibly easy. For Mac OS X Leopard, you will need to change the sound settings found in “System Preferences/Sound” and change from Internal Speakers (for MacBook) to Audioengine AW1 for output source. In my case, I was roughly 20-25 feet away from the wireless receiver device to give you an indication of space from MacBook to wireless receiver. Read the rest of this entry »

I use Leopard’s built in Networking features a fair bit around my home and I really like the way OS X Leopard shows a very accurate preview iCon of all the connected Macs available on your network. The best way I can explain this is by showing you the actual images you would see in the “Get Info - Preview” area.

So here is a sample of all the Leopard network iCons I have at home and a few on some of the networks I visit:

Airport Extreme - AirDisk

iBook G4

MacBook

MacBook Pro

iMac G5

Power Mac G5

And now for the PC…

PC Blue Screen

No word of a lie, I was over at a friends and when I went to connect to his network I noticed the iCon for his PC looked a little different, when I got info and previewed the image I just about fell out of my seat!! Looks like some of the folks over at Apple snuck a Windows Blue Screen Network iCon in for good measure! Good for them…

This subject pops up from time to time, mostly from Windows users, so I thought I would clear up the Myth.

Since the Switch to Intel, Macs have been able to play games better and at native speeds along side their PC counterparts.

Boot Camp
Using Boot Camp, PC games will play at Maximum resolution on my 24″ iMac, games like Elderscrolls: Oblivion, Bioshock, and Vampire the Masqurade: Bloodlines. I have no problems playing any of my PC games, so when I switched I didn’t loose this capability.

Now Boot Camp is good if you don’t mind booting into Windows, and it means you can keep all your PC games, but this incurs the extra cost of the OS. After a while you will find yourself not booting into Windows because it is a chore, and you have to wait for it to catch up with all the Windows updates. But its good if you feel like playing the odd PC game that you are in the mood to play Read the rest of this entry »

Review by wraith2021

This is the first game review I have ever done, that is not to say I don’t play games, I have for many years, but this is one of note because this is a Mac game.

Shock! Horror! Macs don’t have games! I hear you cry. Well, they do now, and they are identical to their PC counterpart with exactly the same graphics.

I will start by saying that Macs do not have as good of a reputation when it comes to games, this is because of the minimal market share the Mac had in the past, and the limited capabilities of some of the older Macs. Since the switch to Intel however things have been looking up for the Mac; market share is ever increasing, Macs are on par with PC’s hardware wise, and Macs are now picking up on the game front too.

After playing the demo I found myself wanting to get this game, this is not to say that the Mac had any real impact over say playing the demo on the PC, but the game is identical in every way to its PC counterpart.

I will start by saying I am running this game on a 24″ iMac, 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme, 2GB Ram, ATI 2600HD 256MB. Basically a gaming Mac with a big glossy screen.

The first thing I did when I installed the game (When I say installed, I mean I dragged the Icon from the DVD to the Applications folder.) was to set all the settings to Maximum to see how it performed. I must admit the graphics are smooth and amazing My Mac had no trouble running this game with all the bells a whistles turned on. Read the rest of this entry »

I believe there where a lot of smiles on the faces of Apple Airport Extreme owners who have been counting or should I say waiting on Apple to come through with a fix for the Time Machine support of Airport Extreme AirDisk drives.

All I can say is a big thanks goes out to Apple, right now two Mac Laptops in my home are happily backing up to my 1TB AirDisk drive connected to my Apple Airport Extreme. Once they are finished I will be backing up my main Mac to it as well.

You can update your Airport Firmware via Software Update or download it from here.

AirPort Extreme Base StationThe all new AirPort Extreme, 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless base station for Mac + PC, up to 5X the performance, up to 2X the range.

Claimed to be 3x faster than FireFox and 5x faster than Opera, Safari 3.1 is now available for Mac and PC as a free download.

And there’s also a stand alone donwloadable Tiger version which was near impossible to find with the previous version of Safari, not so good for anyone who may have damaged or erased Safari 3.

I have been using Safari 3.1 for a few days now and so far it’s stable and fast, not a single issue.

You can get Safari 3.1 for Mac and PC here

Periodically I look through my WordPress admin area to see who’s linking to Switching To Mac,  I found an Article that I really enjoyed reading, not because of the link back but because the author wrote in an almost poetic style what many people (myself included) have tried to explain is the difference between a Mac and a PC… and without a hint of anything derogatory to either platform.

Here’s a quote from Robby Slaughter’s Blog 

“It has happened to all of us. Guided by innocuous turns of fate, we find ourselves somewhere familiar, but somehow minutely alien. Everyone looks hip and sophisticated—their sunglasses too large, their neckties too thin. Powerful conversations and maniacal laughter tear through the space. Then you realize, for all their fabulous uniqueness, everyone has the same silver talisman unfolded before them. They are Apple computers. These are the people of the fruit.”

Read the rest of this very intriguing Article

 (UPDATE -  they’re done and they are live, you can get them here)

I wanted to give you a bit of a teaser preview of some Video Tutorials I’m working on, they’re part of a series I’m calling “Quick Start Your Mac”. There will be a total of approximately 40 or so short and informative videos shot using screen capture at a very crisp 1024 x 768 resolution so they look like I am sitting right there in person demoing them on “your” Mac.

Here is a preliminary list of what the end content should look like:

Navigation

• Finder Views
• Cover Flow & Quick Look
• Apple Menu
• Menu Bar
• Dock
• Red-Yellow-Green
• Opening Files or Applications
• Expose
• Stacks
• Spotlight
• The Trash
• Inserting & Ejecting Media
• Key Commands
• Quitting Applications
• Managing Open Applications

System & Settings

• System Preferences
• Power Management
• System Info
• Installing Applications
• Deleting Applications
• Setting up a Printer
• Change Desktop Images
• Sharing your Mac
• Right Mouse Click
• Changing File Names
• Time Machine

Extras

• File Management
• Contextual Menus & Items
• Force Quiting
• Save as PDF
• Zoom
• Target Disk Mode
• Recent Items
• Word Processing Options
• Web Browser Options
• Media Player Options
• Widgets
• Help menu
• Software Updates
• Windows on a Mac

I have not worked out the cost as of yet for the series but I do plan on making them available as an affordable download.

So take a look at a few samples and let me know what you think…

(Depending on your Internet connection the movies may take several minutes to load and play)

How do I make my non-network printer accessible to my Mac and/or PC on my home or small business network?

This is a common question with PC to Mac Switchers, indefinitely there are potentially one or two PC’s hanging around and now that Mac has taken over the roost or at least planted itself firmly, how do you go about sharing your Mac’s printer or even an Airport’s connected Printer with a PC and or other Mac on your network?

Luckily for us, Apple was wise enough to make a very nice utility called Bonjour for Windows (Compatible with Windows 2000/2003, XP and Vista) that does a very nice job of making all of this printing on multiple platforms without the need for an actual network printer a real option for even the faint of heart. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t usually use this area of the site to flog off anything I have for sale but this is a bit different.

A month or so ago I received my OLPC Give1-Get1 XO Laptop and I really enjoyed playing around with it but the reality is it’s just not a Mac. I wasn’t expecting it to be Mac so I’m not disappointed but I was thinking I would use it for occasional Internet connectivity and then I got my iPhone and we all know how well the iPhone does Internet! One other reason for the XO Laptop purchase was for my daughter but she is just a bit too young right now for it, maybe in a few years… But why keep a good thing like the XO Laptop sitting around not being used? So I sold it to a very nice family with 3 kids, one is 5 and one is 7, perfect ages for experimenting with an XO Laptop. I was truly sad to see it go!

Ironically I just got my complimentary Give1Get1 T-Mobile 1 Year Hotspot information and so what I want to do is auction it off to the highest bidder. The value for 1 year of unlimited T-Mobile Hotspot service is around $350!

I will be donating 50% of the proceeds of this auction to Children’s Charities, my usual charity proceeds from the revenue of Switching to Mac and S2M Computer Consulting is 10%.

So let the bidding begin and remember much of it goes to a good cause and the rest will be put to good use, believe me!

So email me your best offer here, the winner gets it!